If you follow our exploits, you know that we love to explore materials, inks, printing processes and other special effects with our Quarterly Editions. At first glance, you’ll see we’ve taken foil stamping to an extreme. We’ve stamped Sappi’s premium McCoy 100# cover stock with a silvery-black metallic foil, covering the whole book, everything but the spine. That portion features a stripe of vibrant orange ink with a soft-touch varnish. The cover text is embossed, giving the whole book a retro-futuristic machine feel.

But the biggest difference between Black Ice and our usual Field Notes is a bit less obvious if you don’t look closely. This is our first pocket memo book without staples! The books are PUR-bound, using an advanced polyurethane adhesive that’s both stronger and more flexible than regular perfect binding. We’ve been wanting to try out PUR binding for a while and this paper/color combination seemed like a perfect fit.

Inside, you’ll find “Bright White” Finch Fine Smooth 70# text paper, a brighter-white version of the paper found (and beloved) in our “America the Beautiful” limited edition. It’s ruled in “Frost Gray” with a double-rule of “DDC Orange” up top.

It all turned out to be a very complicated printing process, involving a lot of testing, lots of steps, many press checks and some serious challenges for our printers. In the end, they came through and really nailed it. These books look simply amazing.

FIELD NOTES FALL 2016 EDITION: LUNACY

From Field Notes:

Our 32nd Quarterly Edition for Fall, 2016 is a perfect example of an idea that started simply and then got a bit out of hand. Okay, maybe more than a bit. Originally, our basic concept was to do a 3-Pack of Memo Books celebrating the Harvest Moon. Then somebody asked, “What about highlighting the phases of the Moon?” Somebody else said “DIE-CUT!” which was followed quickly by a chorus of “Matte Varnish!” “Embossing!” and “Let’s make sure that people know how to avoid becoming a werewolf.”

This is the aptly-titled “Lunacy” Edition. There’s lots to love about this release. The embossed covers are made from Neenah’s Classic Crest “Epic Black Stipple” which features a gorgeous, almost leathery finish. For the first time ever, we’ve die-cut the covers, using individual dies for each of the three books. One reveals a full moon, one a half moon, and one a crescent.

The moon that’s visible through the die-cut is printed in 4-color on a glossy flyleaf which also includes facts and folklore about earth’s constant companion, as well as a lovely shot of the dark side of the moon in the back of the books. The Field Notes logo is embossed with a subtle hit of varnish, and the back cover features an embossed full moon. The books are bound with black staples (of course), and the 48 body pages feature a reticle pattern on light grey “Moondust” pages.

“Lunacy” is available now in 3-Packs featuring full, half, and crescent moons.

FIELD NOTES SUMMER 2016: BYLINE

Field Notes is proud to present their 31st limited release: The “Byline” Edition, for Summer 2016. You’ll find they’re excellent for taking notes at work or in class. They’re Wire-O-Bound and lay flat, so they’re perfect on your desk or kitchen counter, or on that table near the door where you always leave your keys. And of course, if you’re getting the scoop on deep-background from an anonymous source for your next big front page story, well then, the “Byline” Edition is just the ticket. As usual, the inside covers are jam-packed with helpful information.

We studied existing Reporter’s Notebooks and updated and improved just about every facet of the design. Classic Reporter’s Notebooks have always felt a touch clumsy in our hands. We’ve trimmed the width a hair to make it easier to write with one hand while holding it with the other.

We’ve created a cover which protects the wire binding, so it doesn’t get caught on fabric or stuff in your backpack. Traditional notebooks are Gregg-ruled which, to our eyes, is too wide and too dark. We’ve moved to a lighter Collegiate ruling. The diameter of the binding has been customized, as have the die-cut holes that the binding passes through, for maximum “flippability.”

A handy pocket has been added to the back cover which makes for a thicker and more stable hand-held writing surface, and also gives you a place to stash a shred of evidence or a receipt for the cocktails you bought to ply a reluctant witness.

FIELD NOTES SPRING 2016: SWEET TOOTH

From Field Notes:

The Sweet Tooth edition features French Paper’s Pop-Tone line “Blu-Raspberry,” “Banana Split,” and “Tangy Orange” for both the 100-lb covers and extra-beefy 70-lb text pages. The covers are stamped in matching shiny metallic foils from Crown Roll Leaf Inc.

The body pages are plain, and perforated just the right amount. Not so much that you’ll notice it while using the books, but just enough so that, with a quick fold, the pages come out neat and clean. The books are bound with black staples.

All Sweet Tooth 3-Packs feature the same three colors, but we mixed up the stack order just to keep things interesting.

You know how when you turn your face up into the bright sunlight, even on the coldest winter day, it can totally lift your mood? Well, that’s what our latest limited-edition, seasonal release is all about.

The Winter 2015 COLORS edition (our 29th) fulfills our ongoing promise to “try new things.” At first glance, it’s a wintry white-on-white, along the lines of our “Northerly” edition from a few years back, but take “Snowblind” out into the sunlight, and it’s a whole different story.

The covers (100# Sappi McCoy Silk cover stock) are silk-screened (a COLORS first in itself) with two custom inks. The Field Notes logo is a pearlescent “interference” ink that glimmers and sparkles, and the rest of the book is coated in a nearly-magical “photochromic” ink that changes color when exposed to sunlight. Indoors, they’re white, outdoors they’re blue!

The body pages are 60# Finch Opaque text paper marked with a very faint gray graph, and the books are bound with glossy white staples.

FIELD NOTES FALL 2015 EDITION: SHENANDOAH

If you want paper that’s one color on one side and another color on the reverse, the simplest thing to do is to start with white paper and print a different ink on each side. We’ve done that, it’s simple, it works well. But we’re Field Notes; if there’s a more difficult, expensive, and awesome way to achieve the same result, we will find it. In this case, it’s called duplexing. Using brute force and adhesives, you take two different colored papers and fuse them together so that they become one.

We’ve used duplex paper before (in our American Tradesman and Raven’s Wing editions) but this time we had specific paper and colors in mind, and an off-the-shelf solution wouldn’t work. So for the very first time, we made our own.

The Shenandoah edition features three green French cover stocks that match the leaf color of three trees found at Shenandoah National Park: the Sweet Birch, the Chestnut Oak, and the Red Maple. Our new friends at Platinum Converting in Itasca, Ill. fused each of the green papers to a contrasting French text-weight paper that matches the tree’s fall foliage.

These extra-sturdy duplexed covers have a classic, beefy feel to them, reminiscent of early Quarterly Editions like Mackinaw Autumn and Just Below Zero. Beefier, actually, since we’ve upgraded our body paper to 60#T Finch Opaque “Bright White,” with a 3/16″ graph. Each features an illustration of a leaf on the back with some facts about the tree. The belly band is real birch veneer, just because it looked so darn good with all that green.

FIELD NOTES SUMMER 2015: WORKSHOP COMPANION

From Field Notes:

The right tool for the job isn’t always drop-forged from chrome vanadium steel or plugged into a 220-volt outlet. Whether you’re rebuilding the engine in a 1967 Pontiac GTO or converting the home office into a nursery, any big project starts with careful planning. Step away from the power tools and collect your thoughts, specs, and calculations with the new Summer 2015 Field Notes Workshop Companion.

This 27th Quarterly Edition is a set of six books, boxed in a sturdy 60-pt custom slipcase with a sheet of crack-and-peel decals. Each of the books focuses on one DIY discipline Wood Working, Automotive, Gardening, Painting, Plumbing, and Electrical — each containing tips, reference materials and the usual Field Notes wise-cracking.

The six covers are color-coded to compliment six tones of 100-lb cover stock from the French Paper Company’s terrific new “Kraft-Tone” paper, their first new grade in five years. The 70-lb text Kraft-Tone “Standard White Kraft” body pages feature our dot-graph, and are bound with tough brass staples. Anyone fixing a switch, planting a bush, or painting a door jamb will find these books make a nice addition to their workbench, junk drawer or toolbox.

FIELD NOTES SPRING 2015: TWO RIVERS

From Field Notes:

Field Notes loves printing, history, Americana, and a good Wisconsin brandy old-fashioned, so the Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum is our kind of place. We reached out to our friends and neighbors at French Paper Co. of Niles, Michigan, who are also big fans of the museum, and they gladly agreed to help.

After months of planning and several trips north, our love for the museum and the town grew even greater, and we couldn’t be happier to support their work with our 26th Quarterly Edition.

French Paper supplied four cover stocks for these books: Pop-Tone 100#C “Lemon Drop” and “Sno Cone,” Speckletone 100#C “True White,” and Dur-O-Tone 80#C “Packing Brown Wrap.” We hand-set several designs using Hamilton’s collection of vintage type and ornaments. Hamilton then printed our designs in two random colors on a 1961 Heidelberg GT 13″ × 18″ windmill press. Randomizing the designs, papers, and colors resulted in thousands of variations. Further variations were introduced thanks to the nature of wood type, letterpress printing, and the music playing in the print shop during the 200+ hours on press.

Back in Chicago, our logo and specifications were added with a hit of “Broadside Blue-Black” ink. Then the books were bound with 48 pages of Finch Opaque Smooth 50#T featuring our “Double Knee Duck Canvas” graph grid. Three copper staples hold ’em together. As always, they’re all-U.S.A.-made, with a lot of love from the shores of Lake Michigan.

May you lead a fairy-tale life when you go to the land of fairy tales.

Most poets and writers are fascinated with these stories, and I hope that you’d like this. Bon voyage! Belated H-bday too. Some (N)”

This is why I love buying old books. It’s like I’m peering into some one else’s life and not just through the stories I read but through the little inscriptions, earmarks, notes, and dedications of past owners and givers like these. Makes the world smaller but a bit more vast all at the same time.

Late post but here are images from the Hong Kong Book Fair, 17-23 July 2013 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, Hong Kong.

The annual exhibition at the City Hall organised by the Hong Kong Publishing Federation could be regarded as the predecessor of the Hong Kong Book Fair. The First Hong Kong Book Fair was held in 1990 and this year it is its 25th year. The Fair has become an annual major event in Hong Kong with the number of visitors reaching new high every year. The organiser, the HKTDC, has always been striving to promote local reading culture. Apart form extensively inviting the public to the Fair to visit and buy books, it also spares no effort in organising diversified cultural activities during the Book Fair period with a view to enhance the contents and quality of the Fair.

During the past 24 years the number of exhibitors has grown from 149 to 504 in 2009, with corresponding growth of attendance from 200,000 to 900,000 in 2009. The Fair has developed from a mere promotion platform for the industry to an annual territory-wide major reading and cultural event for the public of Hong Kong.

Seconds before the Earth is demolished for a galactic freeway, Arthur Dent is saved by Ford Prefect, a researcher for the revised Guide. Together they stick out their thumbs to the stars and begin a wild journey through time and space.

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
Facing annihilation at the hands of warmongers is a curious time to crave tea. It could only happen to the cosmically displaced Arthur Dent and his comrades as they hurtle across the galaxy in a desperate search for a place to eat.

Life, the Universe and Everything
The unhappy inhabitants of planet Krikkit are sick of looking at the night sky- so they plan to destroy it. The universe, that is. Now only five individuals can avert Armageddon: mild-mannered Arthur Dent and his stalwart crew.

So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish
Back on Earth, Arthur Dent is ready to believe that the past eight years were all just a figment of his stressed-out imagination. But a gift-wrapped fishbowl with a cryptic inscription conspires to thrust him back to reality. So to speak.

Mostly Harmless
Just when Arthur Dent makes the terrible mistake of starting to enjoy life, all hell breaks loose. Can he save the Earth from total obliteration? Can he save the Guide from a hostile alien takeover? Can he save his daughter from herself?

“I collect all sorts of books, but mostly novels, poems, plays, art books, works about history and music, and primary sources for works about the social and natural sciences. Most of them are used or new books purchased at 50 to 80 pct off, but the most valuable for me is Jung’s Red Book.

I’m currently looking for the second volume of Letters of the Great Artists, the other two volumes of Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago, Dunn’s edition of The Perfumed Garden, the Modern Library edition of Fowles’ The Magus, the Twentieth-Century Classics edition of Abe’s The Woman in the Dunes, The Way of Hermes (trans. Salaman and others), Tales of Hoffmann (Heritage Press), Reporting Vietnam (two volumes, Library of America), the Clay Sanskrit Library, and The Rienner Anthology of African Literature.